Introduction

Samsung just can’t get enough of itself it seems. First, it was the humble Galaxy Tab line that brought them into the tablet segment, then soon after that, the Galaxy Note family came screaming onto the scene with a healthy productivity element. Very recently, we saw an even more enhanced productivity line of tablets in the Galaxy Tab/Note Pro family. Are you confused yet? Well, hold onto your frazzled brains because there Samsung introduced yet another line on top of all that – the Galaxy Tab S.

Whereas the 8.4-inch version of the Galaxy Tab S aims to contend with the likes of the more compact-sized 8-inch segment of tablets, the Galaxy Tab S 10.5 is setting its sights on those fuller-sized offerings – like the iPad Air. Previously, the only other tablet to feature a Super AMOLED display was the Galaxy Tab 7.7 from 2010. After a long absence, Samsung is bringing back the display technology in a large scale with this tablet. However, can that be enough to offset the competition?

Design

Not surprisingly, it borrows some of the Galaxy S5’s design language.

Looking at it from the front, we’re even hard pressed to notice any major differences between this and the design of Sammy’s last effort in the Galaxy Tab Pro 10.1. Technically speaking, it’s longer and wider, but they’ve managed to reduce its thinness and weight to an impressive 0.26 inches (6.6 mm) and 16.47 ounces (467 grams) respectively. To tell you the truth, though, it’s pretty unnoticeable that the Galaxy Tab S 10.5 has a larger overall footprint, seeing that it easily matches the confines of many 10-inch sized tablets.The design language of the tablet doesn’t surprise us in the smallest bit, since it borrows many of the Galaxy S5’s design characteristics – like the dimpled patterned design of its casing. Yes, it’s still comprised mostly out of plastic, accented by a metal-like trim bezel, so the design isn’t a fresh or evolutionary one. Rather, for a tablet aimed to be a “premium” offering, it’s still lacking the necessary housing materials and solid foundation to elevate its construction to the same level of the iPad Air or Sony Xperia Z2 Tablet for example.

Unlike the Galaxy Tab S 8.4, which is designed for operating in portrait mode, the Galaxy Tab S 10.5 is obviously meant to be used mostly in landscape – so two-handed operation is ideal. In typical fashion, its sides are adorned by the usual suspect of ports and buttons, which are the IR blaster, power button, volume controls, two speakers, microSD slot, microphone, 3.5mm headset jack, and microUSB 2.0 port.

Better yet, it also receives the same biometric finger print sensor found with the Galaxy S5 – adding yet another security measure into the mix. Naturally, its implementation isn’t as seamless or accurate as Apple’s Touch ID sensor in the iPhone 5s, seeing that we constantly find ourselves having to slowly swipe over the home button for it to properly register. Despite that, we appreciate that it’s here nonetheless.

Lastly, there’s an 8-megapixel camera with LED flash placed in the rear of the tablet.

Display

To date, this is the largest sized Super AMOLED panel commercially used by a mainstream tablet. And boy it doesn’t disappoint!

Previous to the announcement of Sammy’s new Galaxy Tab S line, the Galaxy Tab 7.7 from 2011 featured the largest Super AMOLED panel in a tablet. Well people, the record is now being smashed by the Galaxy Tab S 10.5, seeing that it packs a beautiful 10.5-inch 2560 x 1600 Super AMOLED display. Indeed, the resolution is outstanding by itself, but we can’t forget that it was achieved by Sammy’s own Galaxy Pro line of tablets. Nevertheless, the details are sharp, clear, and plentiful!

Circling back to the focal point of the tablet, its gorgeous Super AMOLED display, our eyes instantly become wide open the moment its piercing iridescence comes into view. This time around, Sammy provides three viewing modes with the display – AMOLED cinema, AMOLED photo, and basic, resulting in really different color reproduction. We have to say we are pleasantly surprised by the “basic” display mode, which enables the screen to produce almost spot-on accurate colors – something that no AMOLED screen has done to date, including those of the Note 3 and Galaxy S5, whose color reproduction remains far off from the accurate visuals found with the Basic mode of the Tab S series. Both color temperature (7050 K) and Delta E values (3.06 in grayscale and 2.38 in rgbcmy) are very close to their reference levels. Good job, Sammy! Meanwhile, the adaptive display option is supposed to optimize the screen’s color range, saturation, and sharpness to deliver more eye-catchy visuals, depending on the content that's being displayed. Moreover, the display continues to astound us with its very wide viewing angles, strong brightness output (395 nits), and overall great clarity. Don’t worry, the saturated goodness is a pleasant thing to admire!

The CIE 1931 xy color gamut chart represents the set (area) of colors that a display can reproduce, with the sRGB colorspace (the highlighted triangle) serving as reference. The chart also provides a visual representation of a display's color accuracy. The small squares across the boundaries of the triangle are the reference points for the various colors, while the small dots are the actual measurements. Ideally, each dot should be positioned on top of its respective square. The 'x: CIE31' and 'y: CIE31' values in the table below the chart indicate the position of each measurement on the chart. 'Y' shows the luminance (in nits) of each measured color, while 'Target Y' is the desired luminance level for that color. Finally, 'ΔE 2000' is the Delta E value of the measured color. Delta E values of below 2 are ideal.

The Color accuracy chart gives an idea of how close a display's measured colors are to their referential values. The first line holds the measured (actual) colors, while the second line holds the reference (target) colors. The closer the actual colors are to the target ones, the better.

The Grayscale accuracy chart shows whether a display has a correct white balance (balance between red, green and blue) across different levels of grey (from dark to bright). The closer the Actual colors are to the Target ones, the better.

Aftef reading I think xperia tablet z2 still best Android tablet
It's faster.. It have live color led and triluminons display which I love more oled .. It have better design and material and it's enough to see sony logo on it
May be if it had a better 2k resolution it would be almost perfect tablet ever
But to me only the screen display resolution with oversaturated oled is the best thing in samsung s tablet right now

You say *oversaturated* when a typical LCD screen can only display 30% of colors found in colour space. That sRGB gamut doesn't mean that it's the entire colour range of the nature. It's just a primitive 'standard' started by HP and MS back in mid-90s. Why do you think Adobe RGB came into picture?

OLED is not oversaturated, as there is a scope for showing more colours. LCD is definitely under-saturated. Because what you see in LCD, there is actually a colour loss from what the original content was.

16 best first person shooters for Android and iPhone

100+ must-have Android apps in 2018

All content (phone reviews, news, specs, info), design and layouts are Copyright 2001-2018 phoneArena.com. All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part or in any form or medium without written permission is prohibited! Privacy . Terms of use . Cookies . Team